Sensex crashes over 2,000 points in early trade, Nifty slips below 23,200; Rs 8 lakh crore wealth eroded

Indian equity benchmarks plunged in Thursday's trade, snapping their three-session rebound after tensions in West Asia intensified following attacks on Iran's South Pars gas field.

During the early trading session, the 30-share BSE Sensex pack tumbled as much as 2,018.61 points to hit a low of 74,685.52, while the NSE Nifty index dropped 596.85 points to 23,180.95.

The sharp decline was led by losses in heavyweight stocks such as HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Axis Bank Ltd, Infosys Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), State Bank of India (SBI), Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), which dragged the benchmarks lower.

Sectoral participation remained broadly negative, with automobile, banking, financial services, realty, consumer, chemicals, IT and pharma stocks witnessing heavy selling pressure. The broader market also stayed in the red, as Nifty Midcap 100 fell 1.83 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 1.56 per cent.

The steep selloff wiped out over Rs 8 lakh crore in investor wealth during the opening trade. The BSE's total market capitalisation (m-cap) dropped by Rs 8.09 lakh crore to Rs 430.90 lakh crore, compared with Rs 439.01 lakh crore in the previous session.

Market breadth remained weak, with 2,283 out of 3,245 stocks declining, while 815 advanced and 147 remained unchanged.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said, "The uncertainty surrounding the war has turned worse with Israel hitting the world's largest LNG refinery in Iran. Brent crude has shot up to $111. This is bad news for oil and gas importers like India. If Brent remains above $110 for an extended period of time, that will have negative implications for India's macros. India's GDP growth and corporate earnings in FY27, too, will be impacted. But this scenario need not play out in the fast changing scenario."

He added, "A prolonged war is no one's interest. Therefore, a sudden end to the war bringing crude prices sharply down cannot be ruled out."

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,714.35 crore on a net basis in the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,253.03 crore, according to stock exchange data.